Periodically twinned 6H-SiC nanowires with fluctuating stems

Periodically twinned 6H-SiC nanowires with fluctuating stems were successfully synthesized on SiC substrate by chemical vapor deposition with ferrocene as the catalyst. The morphology and structures of the products were systematically characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that the nanowires consisted of periodically twinned segments and presented stem-fluctuating morphology, whose diameters fluctuated in the range of 10–150 nm along the axial direction. A model based on vapor–liquid–solid mechanism was proposed to explain the growth of periodically twinned SiC nanowires with fluctuating stems, which revealed that the alternating high-density stacking faults facilitated the formation of stem-fluctuating morphology.